this and that

Here goes:

The Bachelor: Ugh. So I rarely ever watch TV and I hate to admit I’m watching it, but it’s true. It all started a few weeks back when I found out a girl from Oregon was on the show. Then I found out the guy is from Dallas, which I thought could be an interesting dynamic as well…in case you were not aware (let’s hope you are), BUT if not, I’m from Oregon (more or less) and live in Texas. Anyway, I watched a few episodes and now I’m hooked.

Who knows what the guy is like in real life; however, if he is anything like how he is portrayed, well, that is wonderful. One of the first things both my dad and I noticed when arriving here in Austin was the Southern hospitality and…well, sense of respect and values displayed in many Texans. Jake, the Bachelor, def. portrays these attributes through how he presents himself (or at least how they have edited the content…), respect, family values, kinda old fashion, genuine, Southern…actually reminded me alot of the culture and mentality of the Mexicans I was around during my study abroad. Anyway, I’m digressing but the point is this: Jake, if none of those girls work out, I am available. Just saying… (;

Aziz Ansari: I’ve been recently introduced to this comedian and I think he’s pretty darn hilarious. He’s an engaging storyteller and honestly…I feel like he starts telling a story, then completely blows it out of proportion and hyperbolizes…or just makes up everything else. Something I might or might not be familiar with…

Family + Friends: I have the best family and friends. …that pretty much covers it. Love + miss you guys (=

New apartment: I have one. I moved across town, closer to work…and life. It’s a good apartment. Lots of windows and open spaces. I feel like I live in a mini citi tho within my complex AS THERE ARE 1,000 UNITS! wtf right? That is just nutzo.

Austin friends: So, it’s funny. The group of new friend I’ve made down here is awesome. BUT, sooo entirely different that my friends back home. Why different? Because they are all somehow related to the science / medicine field. They’re all my age or a bit older and either are: a nurse, going to med. school, doing science related research, teaching science, physical therapy (I’ll take ‘The rapists for $400′ …Celebrity Jeopardy..anyone??). Anyway, point is, I’m learning quite a bit about science-y things, which is great as I am curious about basically everything. It’s just interesting for me to observe the Friday night conversations of my current circle, versus back home with my ad., music, architecture, etc. friends (= Neither is better nor worse, just a different experience! (=

Pico: I made some pretty darn good pico the other day. It sure feels good to have time to cook these days.

Daily walk: We are taking those at API! Every day at 2 pm, our whole office either circles the parking lot for ten minutes or goes below the building and circles there. Or if it’s really horrible, we’ll lap the cubes. I love the daily walks, great for afternoon productivity + building internal company culture!

And speaking of API, we are now offering programs in Dublin! How neat is that?! (=

Justin Townes Earle: Michael told me about this singer and wow, it was such a good show! I felt like I was in another generation. He reminded me a bit of of Johnny Cash…and there was a fiddle and an upright bass. So wonderful. I love Austin and it’s amazingly wonderful eclectic music scene.

The Super Bowl: I’m not a huge sports connoisseur, but I watched it with some friends and of course enjoyed the company. However, while watching, I was thinking: hmm it sure is kinda funny that there are groups of Americans all over the country, dedicating an entire afternoon / evening to spend with each other having parties, eating, drinking watching this football game. However…why is it that our country is having major issues: terrorism, health care reform, tea party, dissatisfaction with Obama, filibuster issues, wars, unemployment, national debt, etc.  …these huge huge HUGE things that need major reform…and quicky, yet there seems to be a blanket of apathy and a lack of sense of urgency to take responsibility and perhaps collaborate with one another or even have educated discussions on how to fix the issues?

I guess as long as football is on and the stores are selling beer, life is all good though, right? I guess I should probably stop worrying about silly things like this though – I mean, I’m sure someone else will fix it and if not, Obama will take care of me. Let’s be honest, why bother with politics and my future / well-being / safety/ life/ political infrastructure of my country when football is on TV and beer is in the fridge? Good talk.

Hippes. Yup, they’re here too:

Frank. I’m not a hot dog type of girl but oh my god. There is a place here I have been introduced to called ‘Frank.’ Best hot dogs ever. This one is the Chicago dog with a veggie hot dog. The relish is neon green. So delicious:

Google Buzz: Meh. This morning I watched the press conference on the release of Google Buzz – not sure I’m buying it. I think the technology is great – Google always does a great job with this, but I don’t know why we need yet another social networking site. Google claims that this is different because it publishes content from you top 40 friends in a Digg-like fashion – the idea behind this is to surface “meaningful” content.

My two main points of contention. Google says the internet has become saturated with meaningless content. Agreed. Google says Buzz filters the meaningless content and surfaces the content of value. HOWEVER, Buzz works kinda like an aggregator. So let’s say I tweet something. Then it brings it into Buzz and indexes it…so basically, Buzz duplicates, triples, quadruples, whatever, the same exact tweet, defeating the purpose of cleaning up the Internet. Unless I am misunderstanding what it does; however, I don’t think so, as that is exactly what one of the guys said during the press conference. Even above this, it doesn’t solve the problem of people publishing meaningless content and wasting time posting meaningless, shallow projection on the Internet.

My other issue is with one of the examples one of the guys used when describing how Buzz is used in the mobile realm. This example was this: the Buzz “nearby” feature. The guy said: let’s say you go to a concert and you want to see what others around you at the concert are saying…with the technology they have build into Buzz, you can do this. Basically it’s a GPS type technology that allows you to search the projection of those around you. …yeah, that is impressive…on a technology level. BUT, it goes back to…just because we CAN do it, doesn’t mean we should or need to. If you want to know what people around you at the concert are saying, why can’t you JUST ASK THEM…or maybe open your ears and listen for a few seconds?! I know face to face interaction and conversation is a bit outdated and archaic…but serious. Let’s not get ridiculous.

Oh and one other thing (that really grinds my gears): One of the guys was talking about voice recognition and how you could potentially post by JUST SPEAKING. …WHY!!!! Are we THAT lazy?! Here’s what I think:

Anyway, I am getting off track. Let’s end with something nice and pretty. The Texas sky is always a winner:

recycling some things

So I moved apartments this weekend…with moving there comes cleaning, with cleaning there comes recycling.

Although Texas doesn’t have anything similar to the Oregon bottle bill, I’m sure happy that Austinies go out of their way to recycle. This place is kinda downtown Austin – Ecology Action (ecology!!!!) it’s basically a volunteer recycling organization. Nice. (=

That is alot of beer. (well…it was alot of beer…now it’s just alot of bottles). HOWEVER…point is, could you imagine all this being thrown in the trash, i.e. into the ocean?!

Love it (=

learning Greek, making coasters and dancing some Cuban salsa

So here’s a quick recap of what has gone down in the past 3 weeks:

I was very lucky that I had 2 weeks between the end of my internship and the start of my job, so I got to spend the holidays with my family and friends back in Oregon. It was a wonderful time back home, seeing everyone for the first time in six months…being at my parents house and having my sister back home visiting from London, where she is currently living.

Not going to lie – it was definitely a winter break like none other. All other winter breaks I’ve been back home from only being an hour away at UO. And having been around a decent portion of my friends during school, it wasn’t as crazy of a reunion because we had mostly seen each other during the year. The one other time that was a bit different was in 2007 when I had come back from being abroad for six months…it was different, but at the same time, I knew that I was back and would be right back at UO with everyone from that point on. This time coming home was weird because I was a visitor in the place where I used to consider my home base…and now my home base is here in Austin.

There were a handful of times when I thought: I have an entirely other life in Austin that these people don’t know anything about. I have an apartment there, my car is there, my job is there. I have a circle of Texan friends I spend alot of time with that my friends here no nothing about. I play with bands in Austin, go to bars in Austin, take classes in Austin…and for the people back home, this is all a foreign thing.

Same thing goes with my friends though too – my best friend got back from her study abroad in Italy a few days after I moved to Texas, so this was the first time I saw her since March. My other friend Katy just got back from being in Key West for 4 months…my other friend Angie got married a few weeks after I moved here…Brett was on Survivor / in Samoa this summer, my sister has been living in London since September, etc. etc. etc. The point is – it’s just weird we’re all going off having these experiences that are all so foreign to each other. Perhaps is it because we have such a tight community and have all really been around each other since we were young…I don’t know.

Speaking of that (tangent, my bad) so a few months back, I went down to Houston to attend my friend Brian’s masters recital. Brian and I go back to middle school – we met in orchestra and have just been in the same circle of friends. I feel like Brian is actually part of my family though – he’s also good friends with my sister AND he and my mom are pretty tight – my mom accompanied him throughout high school, so they have some history (= Oh…and he attended an orch.academy in Santa Barbara where my aunt teaches…oh and remember how I said he is getting his masters at Rice for bass performance? Well, don’t worry, he’s studying under my UNCLE. !!! WTF, right?! Out of all the schools and bass professors to study under, Brian ends up studying under my uncle. We used to always tease Brian that he was trying to steal away our family, because he literally saw them more than I did before moving here. Kinda sad, but it was funny because it was true.

I drove to Rice with my uncle and as we get into the Shepard school, I see Brian’s mom and dad – they had flown down here from Salem to see Brian’s recital. So, I go give them big hugs…then introduce them to my uncle aka, Brian’s professor. How weird, huh?! So we’re sitting in the recital hall and I’m thinking: this is such a small world. I have Brian’s parents sitting to my left and my Uncle sitting to my right….

After the recital I walked out to the reception area and…ran into Vanessa and Tyler?! Sooo random. I have gone to school with Vanessa since elementary school through UO, Tyler went to my high school . I knew Vanessa better because she was best friends with my sister (of course, right?), but they were both living in Houston and both grew up with Brian since they were little. SMALL WORLD. At the reception I was freaking out inside of my head because I kept thinking…this world is just so damn small. Between Vanessa, Tyler, Brian, me, his parents and my uncle…we have an insane amount of connections…and how the heck did we all end up in that same place at the same time?!

Anyway bring this BACK to the point I was originally trying to make 37 hours ago..it’s crazy and I can’t wrap my mind around the concept of time and location BUT the most important thing is, I love my situation here in Austin – job, lifestyle, friends, etc. It’s been quite an adventure that I still look back on and wonder how the heck I ended up where I am doing what I do, but I feel very thankful for what I’ve been given. Wish I was closer to family + friends of course, but as a whole, I’m feeling pretty good (=

So let’s look at what my life has entailed since winter break.

#1: I flew back. Pretty important step:

#2: Greek class! I’ve been taking a Greek class here in Austin since September, so excited about this. Pre-Austin, I never had made time for learning Greek seriously, but I’m serious about it now. I took classes when I was young for a bit, but I’m sticking with it now. It looks harder than it is – still a challenge for sure, but I will say that knowing Spanish has been SO helpful in helping me pick up Greek. I wish I could get it down faster, but in due time. Here is what we did in class this past week:

#3: So…I had a birthday last week!!  I really don’t like celebrating myself…it’s awkward, but other people like to celebrate, so that is what we did. Julia and Kaylyn had our friends over and we made dinner and cake for them and played some games (I love board games). Then we all proceeded to the Asian Karaoke place. I’ve never been to an Asian run, BYOB, open until 5 am in a stip mall karaoke place. So much fun (= Here are my friends:

#4: I made some coasters. I needed coasters and was feeling crafty, so I decided to make my own! It’s actually quite easy, all you need are small square tiles from Home Depot, photos and mod podge. I love photos and love to reminice about past amazing experiences, so I chose to use photos I took – there are the coasters, minus my Guanajuato, Mexico coaster – this one is already at work (= From left to right, top to bottom, these are the photos:

The first one is of my friend Liz in Las Pozas, the garden or Edward James during a weekend trip to Xilitla, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

The second was taking at Pike’s Market during a weekend trip I took with some friends to Seattle this past memorial day.

#3: My sister and I in Meteora, Greece (ok, so I didn’t take this one…but I’m in it! (= )

#4: Ashly, Andy and I in NYC in 2008 outside one of the One Show events in a Gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC.

#5 is me in Ballmer, our computer lab in Allen / UO / Oregon where I literally lived last year. Sometimes we took breaks and watched YouTube videos…i.e. what was happening in this photo.

#6 was taken during our day long adventure to Coney Island during our trip to the 2009 One Show. Although I don’t think this day should have meant the most to me of this trip, but I won’t lie, spending a day away from the craziness, thinking alot, reflecting alot, pondering life…(the usual)…probably one of the best decisions I made during that time.

#7 – at a hip hop / bboy show at UO in 2007 – I love this stuff and this culture.

#8 – someone tagged the stop signs all over campus in Eugene – this one is right by Safeway on 17th and Pearl, I believe.

#9 – during my COLAB / Portland Advertising Fed. internship in 2008 – one of the intense brainstorm / whiteboard sessions I had with my team (=

#10 – also during the summer of 2008 for COLAB, we went out and had a photo shoot when we were building our book / brand / marketing / strategic plan for our client, Sameunderneath. This pic. is of myself with Brian (one of my teammates!) in downtown PDX!

#5: I’ve been doing alot alot alot of dancing!! I can’t get enough of it to be honest. I started taking a salsa class here in Austin which I’m loving. The type of Salsa I’m learning at this point is Cuban Salsa – the main part that differentiates this type of salsa is that is is danced in a circle, with the partners consistent changing, based on whatever move the main person calls. Way different than the salsa I have danced before, but I freaking love it.

Oh yeah, and then I’ve just been dancing on the weekends with friends which is SOOO much fun!!! One of my favorite things to do on a weekend night is go out and dance with friends – I’ll take anything with a good beat…not going to lie though, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Vanilla Ice, Will Smith, Michael Jackson, Cupid Shuffle, Akon …basically, anything early 90s or with a good beat, I’m down to dance to. The thing that really does make all the difference is the company as well. There are PLENTY of beezies on 6th…or just out in general who are well…to be honest…both trashED and trashY but I am thankful that my friends are not. We just like to dance. So thank you Austin, for having wonderful bars and wonderful DJs and thank you friends for not being beezies:

#6 – Last but not least. BEING OUTSIDE IN JANURY in shorts and a tank top because it is 70 DEGREES OUT! I can’t get enough of it. It was a bit cloudy today, but usually the skies are clear and sun in shining. I love walking the trails around Town Lake and Barton Springs:

Manther

So…I’m more or less from Salem. As 1/2 the UO populate seems to originate from Portland, the last four years, I was given a decently hard time being from Salem in: “Salem is so boring…what the heck is there to do in SALEM” blah blah blah.

So Salem is no Portland, we all know this…but by the same token, Portland is also certainly no Salem.

…and with that said, please meet Manther:

So…Manther is a group comprising some friends from Salem. They write, produce, record, photograph act in, etc. etc. etc. all songs + videos. I’m also fairly confident they are a main reason the Salem branches of Goodwill and Value Village stay in business.

So you saw some photos above, check out a few of their videos:

Goodwillionaires:

The Curious Case of Manther:

making cards by hand

Since I’ve moved to Austin, I’d gained a few penpals – friends from back home in Oregon. It’s one thing to keep in touch via Facebook message or text, but to receive a hand-written or even BETTER a hand-made, hand-written card – such a wonderful mailbox treat (=

At first, I began purchasing cards to send; however, being the granola that I am, in combination with my borderline obsession with arts + crafts, I figure there is no need to buy something new, when I have the materials and interest to make something of my own (=

Card to my roommate – she’s finishing up her degree in Architecture / of course arch. at U of O is huge into incorporating sustainability, so I figured this would be appropriate.  I found this article in a magazine and the card itself is made out of a cereal box (=

Ok, so this one I didn’t make, per se, but…I had fun with caption writing. Maybe I should become a copy writer. ha. not!

Sweet Leaf tea wrapper! Glued to some recycled paper – always a winner (=

I went on a hike at Pedernales Falls and liked the map we got…so, I made post cards!

More fun with stickers and caption-writing… (=

Let’s be honest. I don’t care how old/young you are – who wouldn’t love getting a package COVERED in stickers?!

Made after raiding my mom’s craft closet at home (=

More to come soon!!